


A Fresh Cup of Really Hot Tea

by SecondSilk



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Community: communiquills, Gen, Roleplay characterisation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-04
Updated: 2010-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-12 10:05:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondSilk/pseuds/SecondSilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regulus wants the world to be a different place, he just doesn't know how to fix it. Professor Sinistra offers him tea and advice and he comes to a determination.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fresh Cup of Really Hot Tea

**Author's Note:**

> Characterisation based on Communiquills Roleplaying. Story inspired by an AU verse created by Flesh and Emeralgreen.  
> Title from Douglas Adams.

It was almost four o'clock on Friday afternoon, which meant that it was almost time for a cup of tea and a break from lesson planning. A knock at her door interrupted Sanara's calculations of how many words she would have to write in that time and she said, 'come in,' perfunctorily, not caring who it was.

She only looked up from her work when the door closed, and almost smiled to see Regulus. She liked him; he looked like Alphard, and it reminded her that the world was a complex place of relationship and beliefs, and not comprised simply those who were evil and those who were going to die. Sometimes, he looked too much like Alphard, and Sanara had to remind herself that the price Alphard paid for the life he wanted was beyond Regulus's means.

"Tea?" she offered.

He nodded without saying anything and took the seat across the desk. She almost smiled at the familiarity inherent in the gesture. She had told him once that he was always welcome to visit her. He had been eleven years old then, and trying to petition Gryffindor Tower to give Sirius back to Slytherin.

Sanara concentrated on boiling water and spooning tea, rather than looking at the boy. She didn't actual smile, because he had looked guilty. There was any number of reasons why that might be. Slughorn, who barely remembered her as a student, might well have felt she was over-stepping her role as a teacher and lectured the students. Given what she knew of Regulus's friendships, it might be he did have something to confess.

She served him a slice of apple cake and he stabbed it moodily, and neither of them spoke until the tea was cool enough to drink.

"You said it didn't have to be like this," he said, accusingly.

Sanara watched him chew his cake and refrained from correcting him.

"Like what?" she asked.

"The way he looks at me, now. And with that- those friends of his."

Sanara wasn't sure, exactly, who Regulus was talking about: perhaps his brother, who had been blasted off the tapestry; or Potter, who had finally caught Lily Evans's attention; or even Rabastan, for some unknowable slight. She could not ask him, though. Regulus's relationship with James was closer and stranger than any else knew.

Sanara had seen them together. She had even mentioned it once, having interrupted an argument between James Potter and the Black brothers. Regulus had blanched, and Sanara had felt ill remembering her own time at school.

"What happens when you try to talk to him?" she asked, afraid that she might scare him by mentioning names.

Regulus shook his head. "I can't."

Sanara suppressed a sigh. She had never liked discussing her feelings, especially with those involved, but she did not expect things to change without effort on her part. If Regulus felt he was fighting both his brother and Potter, retreat was the more worthy action. Slytherins don't fight battles they aren't sure of winning.

"I never said that it didn't have to be this way, Regulus."

He glared at her, accusingly again. And perhaps she was the only one close to knowing what 'this way' was.

"I said that it is this way. And that you have to work to change it."

Regulus stared down at his plate, meticulously mutilating his remaining cake. Suddenly, he dropped his fork onto his plate and downed his tea in one long swallow, managing not to dribble any down his chin. Sitting up straighter, he looked at her with as much intense excitement as anyone ever had.

"How?"

Sanara blinked. If I knew how to change the world, she thought, I would have. Alphard had been amused at her attempts to talk to his family. Even now, she could think of further arguments and turns of phrase that might have made a difference. But her duty as a teacher, and her own desire to help Regulus, forced her back into the present.

"Think of what you want," she began, and his face fell. "Not just who or what, think of the way you want the world to be. And then, using that famous Black talent for getting what you want, and all the cunning you've learnt in Slytherin, work out what you have to do to make the world like that."

Regulus shook his head. "It's impossible," he said.

Frustration caught Sanara for a brief, blinding moment, until she saw from Regulus's determined expression that he had a very clear idea of the world he wanted.

"Then, work to make it possible. And if you can't have the whole thing, take enough of it to get by, or get someone to help. I'm sorry; I can't help more than that."

Regulus nodded, defeated, his head hanging and a frown twisting his lips. Sanara watched him as he inevitably thought of new and crazier ways of making his hopes a reality. Eventually something struck him hard enough that he stood up.

Where before he had sat like a sack of grain, now he was standing restless in his robes, and he couldn't settle to look at any one thing in the room. His eyes went from her maps of the Muggle Underground, to the telescope in the corner, to the books behind her and back to the remains of his cake. Then he glanced at the ceiling and squared his shoulders.

"Thank you, Professor," he said, as formal as Sanara had ever heard.

"You're very welcome, Mr Black. Any time."

He smiled brightly for a moment, but he was already distracted by his plans. He forgot to close her door behind him when he left. Sanara crossed the floor to do it herself and caught the last sight of him dashing down the hall. She wondered what her place would be in the world he was going to create.


End file.
